Tow filament separating apparatus



' May 9,- 1967 ZENJI MURAKAMI TOW FILAMENT SEPARATING APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Sept. 11, 1964 FIG. 3

INVENTOR.

254 97 M URAK A #1 l y 1967 ZENJI MURAKAMI 3,317,965

TOW FILAMENT SEPARATING APPARATUS Filed Sept. 11, 1964 2 sheetswsheet 2 Pas. 12

IN VEN TOR.

251v J'/ Hum: KAN! BY United States Patent 3,317,965 TOW FILAMENT SEPARATING APPARATUS Zenji Murakami, Zyoto-ku, Osaka, Japan, assignor to Osaka Kiko Kabushiki Kaisha, Osaka, Japan Filed Sept. 11, 1964, Ser. No. 395,869 1 Claim. (Cl. 19-65) separation of tow filaments by utilizing the characteristics of filaments, the fundamental principle thereof consisting in nipping crimped tow in two spaced points in the path of travel of the tow, strongly stretching the tow within the elastic limit of the filaments and finally loosening the thus stretched filaments byinstantaneously releasing them successively at one of the nip points, thus effecting separating action between the adjacent filaments, all of the said operations being continuously repeated throughout the length of the tow.

Other features and advantages of the invention appear in the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment of the invention, the detailed description referring to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic side view of the tow handling part of 'an apparatus according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged front view of the apparatus, showing a screw roller; and

FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view, illustrating the conditions of operation.

As shown in FIG. 1, tow 1 is passed through between a pair of rollers 2 and 3 for effecting the separation of tow filaments and between a second pair of rollers 4 and 5 serving a double purpose of stretching and delivering the 'tow.

The lower roller 2 of the filament separating assembly is provided with a sleeve 2' of resilient material such as of rubber fitted thereon. The upper roller 3 of said assembly has a screw providing a square thread land 3' forming its outer surface throughout the length thereof. The resilient roller 2 is journaled at both ends in ball bearings 7 and 8 supported by side frames 6. The extensions or ends of the roller 2 are provided with a sprocket wheel 9 and gear 10 secured thereto. Bearing blocks 11 and 12 housing ball bearings 15 and 16 in which is journaled the upper screw roller 3 at both ends thereof are vertically shiftably fitted in vertical grooves 14 former in the side frames 6. Thus, the upper screw roller 3 is maintained in floatable condition, resting upon the lower roller 2 by its own weight, with its screw land 3 contacted with the resilient sleeve 2' of the roller 2. As the self-weight loading system alone may not be enough to provide the necessary pressure, separate loading means is provided which is shown as springs 17 and 18 downwardly urging the bearing blocks 11 and 12, respectively. The springs 17 and 18 are vertically housed in the vertical grooves 14, with their upper ends supporting a horizontal bar 19. The latter is vertically shiftable, as both ends thereof are loosely fitted in the vertical grooves 14 and, as mentioned above, are supported by the springs 17 and 18. An upper frame 6' positioned above the horizontal bar 19 is provided at its central portion with a hub 20 having a central opening through which is passed a push rod 22 with its lower end resting 3,317,965 Patented May 9, 1967 upon the horizontal bar 19 and its upper end cont-acted with a plate cam 23. The latter is secured to a shaft 24 rotatably supported in a housing mounted on the hub 20. A handle 25 integrally projecting from the plate cam 23 is manually rotatable around the axis of the shaft 24. The rotation of the handle 25 causes the camn-iing surface of the plate cam to push down the push rod 22 which, in turn, pushes down the horizontal bar 19 against the compression force of the springs 17 and 18. Thus, the pressure of the screw 3' acting on the resilient roller is increased. During operation, the screw roller 3 is maintained in such pressurized condition.

The resilient roller 2 is driven in the direction of arrow a shown in FIG. 1 by means of a driving chain (not shown) passing around the chain wheel 9. Then the gear 26 of the screw roller 3 meshing with the mating gear 10 keyed to the roller 2 is, of course, driven so that the screw roller 3 is rotated in the direction of arrow b shown in FIG. 1. The numbers of teeth of the gears 10 and 26 and the outer diameters of the rollers 2 and 3 are so selected that these rollers are rotated at the same surface speed while contacted with each other.

When the tow 1 is processed through the apparatus, it is first nipped between the resilient roller 2 and screw roller 3. The surface speed of the stretching and delivering rollers 4 and 5 is so selected as to be greater than that of the rollers 2 and 3. Therefore, those filaments 1' which are placed on the screw land 3' of the screw roller 3 are firmly nipped between screw land 3' and the surface of the resilient roller 2, and are stretched by the rotation of the stretching and delivering rollers 4 and 5, as shown in FIG. 3. On the other hand,.those filaments 1" which occupy the groove portion 3" of the screw 3 are not nipped, so that they are loosened. In this manner, the filaments which compose the tow 1 are subjected to alternate actions of stretching and loosening along the entire width of the tow. As the screw roller 3 is rotated together with the resilient roller 2, the screw land 3 in contact with the resilient roller is successively displaced laterally (in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the roller 3). Thus, the moment the stretched filaments caught by the screw land 3 are released therefrom, they are brought into the loosened condition as at 1". This operation is regularly repeated between the filament separating rollers 2, 3 and the stretching rollers 4, 5, as previously described. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, the rollers 4 and 5 are located to draw the tensioned tow from said first set of rollers 2, 3 at an angle from the tangent plane therebetween on the side of said plane toward said resiliently surfaced roller 2, 2', thereby to snub the tensioned filaments over a corresponding arc of the surface of the resilient roller.

FIG. 3 illustrates the above-mentioned operation, in which figure the screw roller 3 and the stretching roller 4 are shown as displaced backwardly and forwardly, respectively, in order to give a better understanding of such alternate actions, and the arrow shows the longitudinal direction in which the tow is continuously moved while its respective filaments are separated by being longitudinally elastically stretched and released relative to each other.

The tow 1 fed by the rotation of the rollers 2, 3, 4 and 5 is subjected repeatedly to the stretching action 1 and loosening action 1" while it is moved longitudinally under tension in the direction of the arrow, and as is also shown in FIG. 3, the tow, the width of which has been maintained substantially constant by the combined tow tensioning and snu-bbing action of the combination, is delivered by the rollers 4 and 5 after the filaments have thus been completely separated by the longitudinal elastic stretching relative to each other.

From the foregoing description, it is clear that the present invention provides a novel improved tow filament separating apparatus wherein tow is nipped between the resilient roller 2 and the screw land 3' of the screw roller 3, the rotation of which causes the filaments to be released from the screw land 3' to enter the groove portions 3", whereby the stretched filaments are successively loosened, thus achieving perfect operation of filament separation free from damage to the filaments, with the increased efficiency of the succeeding processes assured.

The present invention is applicable not only to a specific converter but to any other textile processes which require the separation of filaments, with the same satisfactory results obtained.

It should be understood that although a particular embodiment of the invention has been described for the purpose of illustration, the invention includes all modifications and equivalents of the described apparatus which fall within the scope of the appended claim.

What I claim is:

An apparatus for separating from each other the filaments of a tow moving in a longitudinal direction, while maintaining the width of the tow substantially constant, said apparatus comprising:

(a) first and second sets of rollers through which the tow is passed in the longitudinal direction in sequence, said sets being spaced apart in said longitudinal direction,

(b) said second set of rollers :being tow delivering rollers having continuous surfaces,

(c) said first set of rollers being tow filament gripping and releasing rollers comprising a cylindrical roller, a screw roller, and means for driving said cylindrical and screw rollers at the same surface speed,

(d) said cylindrical roller being resiliently surfaced,

(e) said screw roller having a square thread land forming its outer surface throughout the length thereof with a groove between adjacent turns of said land, and being spring pressed toward said resiliently surfaced roller,

(f) said second .set of rollers being driven at a surface speed greater than the surface speed of said first set of rollers by an amount which applies tension to the tow and longitudinally stretches respective filaments of the tow within the elastic limit of said filaments while said respective filaments are nipped by said second set of rollers and by the land and resilient surfaces of said first set of rollers,

(g) said second set of rollers being located to draw the tensioned tow from said first set of rollers at an angle from the tangent plane therebetween on the side of said plane toward said resiliently surfaced roller, thereby to snub said tensioned tow over a corresponding arc of the resilient surface of said resilient roller,

(h) whereby as the tentioned tow is being longitudinally drawn continuously through said first set of rollers by said second set of rollers, tow filaments of said tensioned tow which are nipped between the land and resilient surfaces of said first set of rollers are longitudinally elastically stretched bet-ween said sets and, as rotation of said screw roller moves the groove thereof into a position overlying the so stretched filaments and releases the nip thereon, the so released filaments are drawn longitudinally forward through said groove against the snubbing effect of their said arcuate contact with said resiliently surfaced roller by the contraction of the stretched portions thereof extending to said second set of rollers, so that as the tow is moved longitudinally by said sets of rollers, each of the individual filaments thereof is elastically longitudinally stretched and released relative to the adjacent filaments thereof while the tow as a whole is snubbed over said are of said re- .silient surface, thus separating the filaments while maintaining substantially constant the width of the tow.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,925,628 2/1960 Boer 19-258 3,017,309 1/196-2 Crawford et al l966 X 3,032,829 5/1962 Mahoney et al 19-65 3,156,01-6 11/1964 Dunlap et al. l966 3,254,373 6/1966 Pannill et al. l965 OTHER REFERENCES Netherlands application No. 6,401,616, August 1964.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner. 

